Trouble in Leaves
by Kaida Sorano
Summary: Two strangers come to Konoha. All seems fine until a new danger arises. Who are these strangers? And where's Naruto? [AU]
1. Prologue

**Trouble in leaves**

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto  
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We travel the world in seek  
to seek a place   
a place to call home

Men say…  
'home is where the heart is'  
where is my heart  
travelling the road

We travel the world in seek  
to seek a place  
a place to call home

We saw a place  
a village in leaves  
we saw the people  
kind and caring

We travel the world in seek  
to seek a place  
a place to call home

We decided to stay  
and a home we found  
but now the road calls  
to save our home


	2. Chapter 1

**Trouble in Leaves**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or anything other than my OCs.  
Characters will be Out Of Character.

_Italics_- place  
"**Bold**"- Kyuubi speaking  
"Normal"- talking  
'Normal'- thoughts

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Chapter One: Shady characters

Two cloaked figures stood at the entrance of the north gate of Konoha. Heads tilted towards each other in a hushed conversation. The guards eyed them suspiciously, taking their every movement as normally no one was around at that time. Slowly the shorter figure tilted her head towards them. One guard stiffened, the other shifted his position a little and continued to watch the pair warily. The taller figure sighed, glanced at his partner then walk up to the guard. On closer inspection the figure was a young boy, probably in his teens. He had short gelled back silver hair (think Kakashi only a brighter silver), only just visible under his hood, his eyes were a piercing midnight blue that seemed as if he were looking into your soul.  
"Halt. State your business." the shorter and more edgy guard barked.  
"We have business with the Hokage." the boy replied offhandedly.

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_Somewhere on the outskirts of Stone country_

A young man stood surveying the camp of bandits and thieves, his eyes committing the layout to memory. A grin graced his face as he noted his partner in the midst of the camp. 'Know your enemy.' it was a well known phrase, but he knew it was more then that, knowing your target's habits and movements were only a part of the whole picture. To successfully erase your target and leave no tracks behind, was to be a successful Assassin. Usually he worked alone, but recently his superiors had forced a partner upon him. And strangely enough, he was glad they did. His partner was meticulous with planning and gathering data, to a point of annoyance, but after all the planning she would swiftly proceed with the plan and eliminate the target with an inexplicable speed and deftness that few ever had or achieved. He liked her, with her bizarre humour and easy air surrounding her when not in combat. He didn't know why, but he did.

He returned to their camp and shrugged his cloak off leaving a dark red shirt with a white stripe from his shoulders to his wrists. He also wore black crumpled pants and mud brown combat boots. Equipped with the standard shinobi gear he proceeded to strap on his katana and wakizashi, as well as load himself with what he thought he would need for the up coming fight.

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_In Konoha, Hokage's Office_

The two cloaked figures now stood in front of Tsunade. The taller of the two stepped forward.  
"Yo-" He started.  
"No need Xero. Any news?" Tsunade spoke up cutting him off. Xero shook his head and the shorter of the two spoke up.  
"Sumari-san may not have found anything... but then again he never looks hard any way."  
"Mah... Xu-Len that's not true."  
Tsunade smiled. The two reminded her of her of Naruto. Thinking of Naruto reminded her of the reason the two were here. Officially they were yet to be Konoha nins, but since they had come three months ago they had proved their worth. They had come to Konoha claiming they wanted to settle down after their long life of wandering. Tsunade had been ready to instate them in to the ranks, but the council had stood firm stating that they had to prove their worth and loyalty before any such thing.  
"Enough! Now Xu-Len what do you have."  
"Regarding the search for Uzumaki Naruto." Xu-Len started.  
"We have a possible lead." Xero finished. Both of them recognised the glimmer of hope in the Hokage's eyes. Both of them knew the Hokage had a close family like relationship with Naruto, from what the Rookie Nine and Team Gai had told them. They had assumed that this Naruto person was important to Tsunade, and they were right. That's why they had volunteered to search for him, as well as wanting to meet him themselves.  
"And?" Tsunade questioned impatient.  
"We followed one of the least used paths and came upon a village near the border of Cloud country." Xu-Len answered warily, the news was going to be good and bad.  
"We hung around for a while, asked a few question. The residents weren't really cooperative, but we managed to find that Naruto had been there. For how long and where he is now we don't know... yet." Xero finished again frowning. Xu-Len seemed reluctant to say everything they found out. Tsunade sighed. At least they knew roughly where he was.  
"Thank-you. That would be enough. You may leave now." Tsunade lent back in her chair, turning around see looked out the window at the village below. The village that had shunned Naruto and exiled him. The village that now needed him back to protect it. Once again she sighed.  
'Where are you Naruto'

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_The Bandit camp on the outskirts of Stone country_

A slim dark-haired young woman crouched listening to the heated discussion made within a large tent. Her partner would be making his move soon, as impatient as he was, he could not wait for long. She had to finish soon or the whole plan would fall apart, mostly due to his impatientness. That was one of the things she disliked about her partner. Sometimes he annoyed the hell out of her, other times he was tolerable. Though there were times she had to admit where he was cool and sweet. But if there was one thing she could do quite happily and without a doubt would be to point out his faults, but not because she hated or disliked him. She found it amusing to watch him become irritated, frustrated or exasperated, she would smirk sometimes when he found it difficult to do something or find someone, when it was quite obvious, to her at least.  
The meeting was over and now she had enough information to pinpoint the exact location of their target's whereabouts and its movements. Now all she needed to do was pass the information on to her partner. Kit Silver as he liked to be called. It wasn't his real name of course, no one knew his real name, only a one or two of her superiors did and the man himself.

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That's all for now. Sorry for the late update, as much asI would love to just sit and write stories Ican't. I have school you know!  
Please R&R. Thank-you!


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